China is expected to ratify WIPO’s internet treaties in the second half of this year. These treaties are:
These treaties update (the traditional right of reproduction continues to apply in the digital environement, including to the storage of material in digital form in an electronic medium, and they clarify that owners of rights can control whether and how their creations are made available online) and improve the protection of the copyright and related rights treaties and link the various national laws by ensuring that at least a minimum level of rights will be granted to creators under each national law. The treaties grant certain rights specified on a nondiscriminatory basis. The treaties use two technological adjuncts to rights: anti-circumvention and rights management information (the information which accompanies any protected material available online and identifies the work/creator/performer/owner and the terms and conditions for its use).
“Liu Binjie, Vice-Director of the State Press and Publication Administration, said in Beijing on April 11 that the government had completed drafting the Protection of the Right of Communication through Network, the prerequisite for accession to WIPO treaties.
The draft, which is aimed at better protecting copyrights, had been submitted to the State Council, the cabinet, which is expected to approve and publish it in the first half of this year, said Liu.“
Read the Xinhua article here.
